Laxminarayan Temple (Birla Mandir)

Erected in 1938 by industrialist B.Birla, the temple was one of the firsts in India to open to all social classes, and Mahatma Gandhi attended its first service. Commonly known as Birla Mandir, it's a fairly typical example of contemporary religious Indian architecture, with a marble entrance and shikharas (needles) of ocher and brown outside and pictures of Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi on the altar inside. The side altars around the courtyard are home to sacred Hindu inscription writings and are decorated with paintings of scenes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. It might not be the most charming,